Dear Editor,
With reference to the current situation and the appalling number of unvaccinated patients filling emergency departments and, subsequently ICUs, in our hospitals.
It is reprehensible that these people who refuse the vaccine for whatever reason, are filling hospitals already over-burdened, pushing medical personnel to their physical and mental limits, causing the cancellation of surgeries and other essential treatments.
(I’m not condemning those who, for medical reasons are unable to take advantage of it... my sympathies go out to them.)
Vaccinations are a vital part of keeping safe. They’re not new, they’ve been in use for a hundred years, and countless fatal diseases have been eradicated thanks to their existence.
We get an annual influenza vaccine, we get boosters for countless other protective vaccines, for example, pneumonia.
COVID-19 is no different. A vaccine has been developed to help us overcome this persistent virus — it will continue to be developed as the virus continues to mutate.
My question is — why are so many people stubbornly refusing to accept that they are not invincible? Would they refuse a smallpox or typhus vaccination if, by refusing one, it would preclude their chances of travelling to, say, India or any other country where the diseases might still be active.
Having proof of vaccination is not new. Without it, we would have been denied immigration to Canada almost 60 years ago.
It is not an invasion of privacy, it is not an admission of weakness because you accept it. It is proof that you care, not just for yourself, but for those around you, for those you might come into contact with by accident, for your fellow man (and woman).
You claim it is your constitutional right to refuse. That maybe so, but it is also the constitutional right of everyone to stay safe and protected from a life-threatening disease that has swept the world in a very short period of time and will continue to do so if we don’t fight it with everything at our disposal.
Enid Mason
RICHMOND
